Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj’s 400th review! How about that, 400 reviews and what better way to celebrate than by taking a look at the second part of Escaflowne. Let’s get started.
Episodes 13-16
At the start of episode 13 instead of getting a straight up mecha battle the soldiers guarding the castle sacrifice themselves in order for the others to escape with the kingdom’s greatest treasure. They all make their way to the Fortuna Temple (how fortunate for them) where Duke Freid tells them that the great treasure they possess is actually the power of Atlantis. We find out that they had the power to turn human will into energy (if only we could do that in real life) which allowed them to rule with an iron fist. But as time progressed they became arrogant in their ways and wound up destroying themselves with only a few surviving who sealed the power away in the Fortuna Temple (where many years later it was discovered by the Lantern Corps. and they used that power to form the Green Lanterns). The key to unlocking the power of Atlantis lies in the sword of Freid and it has been their sworn duty to protect the sword at all costs (or we could just destroy the sword along with the secrets of Atlantis saving everyone. That’s also an option). Later on Van apologizes to Hitomi for pressuring her last episode to use her powers (don’t, she was being selfish and spoiled) and he talks about using her dowsing methods that he learned from her as a way to become one with Escaflowne (that sounds like a very bad idea). Zaibach finally shows up at the temple where the soldiers of Freid put up a good fight but ultimately fall to Dilandu and his forces. Duke Freid dies on the battlefield and on his death he orders his soldiers to hand over the power of Atlantis. Chid follows the orders of his (surrogate) father and presents the sword of Freid to Folken as Allen and the others escape where something is wrong with Van as he hasn’t come out of Escaflowne at all and isn’t moving (he’s probably sleeping).
Episode 14 starts off with Van a bloody mess and passing out from his wounds. Despite getting proper medical treatment his wounds aren’t closing until Hitomi inspects Escaflowne and discovers that the wounds on it are the same as the wounds on Van. Since Van successfully became one with Escaflowne that means that whatever damage Escaflowne gets Van will get the same damage done to his body (see? This was a dumb idea). As they fly, they come across Dryden the fiancé of Millerna (who looks like one of those shady loan sharks you see on the streets). Despite coming from royalty he’s quite the eccentric fellow and takes an interest in Escaflowne and says that mechs like Escaflowne use Atlantis technology. Basically, the people piloting Escaflowne are bound by a blood pact so they can pilot it until they die while no one else can and it allows their thoughts to transfer into Escaflowne making them fight better than normal. However, as I said before this comes with disadvantages (Yin-Yang: Like having your body carved up like a pumpkin whenever it gets damaged. This blood pact is bullshit). The only way to save Van is to repair Escaflowne but they lack the tools to fix it so Dryden summons the Ispanos the people who originally made Escaflowne to fix it up (they look like what would happen if the Jawas from Star Wars could speak normally). They can fix it up but it’ll cost 50,000,000 which they don’t have. Luckily, Dryden steps up and agrees to pay for the repairs and he doesn’t even ask the group to repay him (what a badass. Only on screen for like 10 minutes and he’s already the best character. Don’t go falling for him Hitomi he’s Millerna’s man. Millerna, don’t screw this up). The Ispanos repair Escaflowne with Van miraculously not dying from the pain but this time of relief is short lived as Dilandu and his men have shown up to fight. Hitomi and Merle beg Van not to fight but he refuses to listen and heads out to battle where he just goes into beast mode and starts killing everyone. It quickly comes down to him and Dilandu where Dilandu is so frozen with fear that he can’t even defend himself. Before Van can land the finishing blow he starts to see the ghosts of the men he just slaughtered and passes out with Escaflowne turning black (scene here: https://youtu.be/YNp_W_ozVx4, like the new paint job).
So in episode 15 Van somehow is slipping into the land of the dead and it’s up to Hitomi to bring him back (be sure to bring back a souvenir). She enters the land of the dead which surprisingly looks like Atlantis (so Heaven is in the ocean instead of the cosmos?). She manages to find Van lost in a daze and as she tries to snap him out of it the place begins to fall apart (oh, so he went to Hell? Well he did mercilessly slaughter everyone in the last episode). She manages to snap him out of his daze and they return to the land of the living thanks to Van flying towards the light (Isis: Head towards the light. (Nitsuj): It’s either that or burn in the pits of Hell). Once they return we see Van is stricken with grief from his battle and can’t really focus in his training. Hitomi tries to get Allen to talk to him (he is the closest thing Van has to a mentor) but Allen says this is something Van has to get through on his own (it builds character). Hitomi lets it slip that she has crush on Allen and runs off embarrassed (oh sure, go for the typical pretty boy instead of the boy who’s done almost everything for you). We shift our focus to Millerna and Dryden, who honestly is proving to be a better match for Millerna than Allen. Dryden actually encourages Millerna to stop being all stiff and proper and just be herself, bold and courageous with her words and actions saying it suits her more (and yeah, he’s right, it does suit her more). Despite Dryden’s mannerisms you can tell he does have feelings for Millerna and wants to make her a better person. Hell, he doesn’t sweat the fact that Millerna has feelings for Allen and is confident that in the end she’ll wind up coming back to him (that’s not cockiness speaking, that’s just straight up confidence in his charm and personality). Sure enough Millerna is starting to see his charm (by God can we get a spin-off anime starring this guy? He’s my favorite character so far) and is now unsure of her feelings so she goes to ask Hitomi for advice (because she’s clearly shown to be an expert on men. Find a nice and hot guy and like him while ignoring the guy who does practically everything for you). Merle eavesdrops on their conversation and tells Hitomi to figure out her love life first before giving other people advice (preach it girl). She straight up asks Hitomi who she likes Van or Allen (or track guy from episode 1 who’s name I forgot and I’m sure Hitomi has forgotten it as well) and she says she likes Allen but wonders if her feelings for Van are just out of concern. Merle tells Hitomi that if she feels that way she should stay away from Van and Millerna also chimes in and tells her to stay away from Allen since he’s out of her league (oh shit those are fighting words right there folks). As the girls argue about their love lives (or lack of them) we see that Folken has sent two leopard women named Naria and Eriya to retrieve Escaflowne. Van fights them 2 on 1 where thanks to his mental state he’s unable to focus and has to get saved by Merle (and Van is lost in the deck again). Seeing Merle risk her life to protect Van reminds the two of how they were discriminated against because of their race and they retreat. We end the episode with the group setting a course for the Mystic Valley the place where the Draconians lived years ago.
Not much happens in episode 16. Dryden reads the group the diary of Allen’s dad from when he made a journey to find the Mystic Valley all because he saw this beautiful woman years ago and wanted to know who she was. Allen holds a lot of resentment to his dad as it was because of his dad’s journey that his family collapsed seeing as how he abandoned everyone and everything to go on this search (https://youtu.be/EYWbatgKN4g). In an amazing twist, we find out that the person Allen’s dad was looking for was actually Hitomi’s grandmother. She somehow was teleported to Gaea where the two developed a bond and then out of nowhere she was returned to Earth (talk about a cocktease). During his travel, Allen’s dad met a strange man named Issac who also came from Earth but during their journey the two got separated. Near the end of the episode the group arrives close to the Mystic Valley with the Zaibach Empire right on their tail.
Episodes 17-20
In episode 17 the group passes through a portal which takes them into the city of Atlantis (https://youtu.be/m3dZl3yfGpc?t=9s). Hitomi, Van, and Allen get transported away where the group easily finds Hitomi and a monolith which talks about the history of Atlantis. As we know they found a way to turn their thoughts into power but they couldn’t control that power and it eventually destroyed their city (alright, who thought about destroying the city?). The few that survived used their remaining power to create Gaea a new world to give humanity a second chance at life and warn them not to repeat the same mistakes they made in the past. While that’s going on Van and Allen are going through their own problems. Van, has to face the fact that he has to keep on fighting despite hating it (didn’t seem to mind fighting when his kingdom was being burnt down. Or when he slaughtered all those dragon slayers. Or when he killed that dragon in the first episode. How does this guy hate fighting again, he’s fought in like almost every episode and seems ready to go any time?). Allen comes face to face with the spirit of his father (oh that’ll be fun for him). Hitomi tries to get the two of them back but Van’s mom urges her not to that and explains to her that the reason why these two are suffering so much is thanks to her (you always hurt the people you love the most). She explains to Hitomi that her powers have the ability to change fate. While her intentions were good and all she did was just fortune-telling, she was manipulating them into what she believed to be the future when in truth she was creating a future where everyone gets hurt thanks to her uncertainty. As Hitomi begins to sulk and blame herself for everything bad that’s happened her grandmother shows up and tells her not to give up and believe in the people she loves (according to her, she only likes one of them. The other one, she’s unsure). Following the advice of her grandmother, Hitomi believes in the people she loves and everything works out for them. Allen finds out that his father was killed by the Zaibach Empire hoping to find the secrets of Atlantis. Allen’s father apologizes for abandoning him, his mother, and daughter and tells Allen to always be true to himself. As for Van, thanks to Balgaus he decides to shoulder the weight of war and carve his own path. Hitomi manages to bring Allen back and soon Naria and Eriya show up as does Allen who manages to teleport everyone out of Atlantis and back to Gaea where Van receives a new energist from his mom.
At the start of episode 18, Van, Hitomi, and Allen get teleported to the capital of the Zaibach Empire thanks to Van’s new energist. They quickly find themselves in the presence of Dornkirk who reveals that he was Issac, the same Issac Allen’s dad met in his journey and who ultimately killed him meaning just like Hitomi he comes from Earth. In the past he tried to figure out the principles of destiny in order to understand why people are drawn to each other (because we seek companionship no matter what). He spent his whole life trying to figure this out but couldn’t find an answer. On his death bed he somehow got teleported to Gaea where he saw how harsh the place was and the needless bloodshed that continued from war. He felt his calling was to end the senseless bloodshed so he taught the people science and through that created the Zaibach Empire. He soon started researching Atlantis and learned about their technology to manipulate destiny so he decided to dedicate all of his time and resources to creating his own destiny manipulation machine however he needs Escaflowne to complete the machine since it’s one of the last remnants of Atlantis technology. After telling his story, Dornkirk locks everyone up (okay, story time over. Time out time, into the cages) and his scientists begin to dismantle Escaflowne causing Van great pain (this will only make you strong Van). Hitomi comes to the conclusion that if Van can feel Escaflowne’s pain than he should be able to control Escaflowne with his thoughts so with Hitomi’s help Van manages to bring Escaflowne to them and they escape.
In episode 19 Van, Hitomi, and Allen reunite with everyone back in Daryun’s homeland where we find out Millerna has accepted Daryun’s engagement and the two will be getting married (alright, there you go Hitomi, Allen’s all yours now). Millerna seems fine with the marriage but Hitomi knows that deep down she still has feelings for Allen and considers it unfair to both men that she’s going along with this marriage (are you serious right now? Your rival in love is marrying another guy and you want her to cancel it. What’s wrong with you?). Millerna admits that she’s having doubts and ask Hitomi to do a reading for her but Hitomi makes up an excuse not to do it and runs away where she runs into Van who tries to cheer her up and even asks her to combine her power with Escaflowne so they can take out the Zaibach Empire once and for all and she takes offence to being seen as a tool of war (I say we go with Van’s plan. With Escaflowne they could literally take out the Zaibach Empire in one battle and save Gaea. It’s better than a full out war where hundreds if not thousands of people die. Get your shit together Hitomi, think of the planet). Back at Zaibach, we see that Dornkirk’s powers which allow him to see into the future is becoming clouded thanks to Hitomi and Van. Apparently whenever the two start to get close to each other and develop a possible love interest, Dornkirk’s visions of the future stop and affect his destiny machine as well. So Folken devises a plan to use the machine to make Hitomi and Allen fall for each other (playing with destiny to get what you want. So evil yet so cool at the same time). The plan works as Hitomi and Allen find themselves drawn to each other and wind up kissing each other on a bridge in the middle of a rainstorm where Van is there to witness it firsthand (sweet God, this guy lives a cursed life. A lost his kingdom and he can’t get a kiss from the girl he obviously likes).
Moving onto to episode 20 Van is devastated by what he saw (Yume: What did he expect, he keeps screwing himself over every time with her). Back with Naria and Eriya they undergo a surgery at the request of Folken which will increase their luck and transform them into invincible warriors. Since they can’t say no to Folken (because they love him. (Baron): Hey Folken, you do anything kinky with those cats at night?). Back with Hitomi she finally does a reading for Millerna about her marriage with Daryun and it’s not good. The marriage is going to be awful and Millerna will become secret lovers with Allen (alright. Let’s cancel that marriage, lie about it, and keep all the wedding gifts). Hitomi decides to play with fate (didn’t you just say two episodes ago that toying with fate is bad? You’re no better than Dornkirk) and lies to Millerna about the wedding saying it’ll be very lucky (for Millerna, she gets both guys and I’m sure Daryun would be okay with this arrangement. I don’t know, he looks like the kind of guy who would welcome a threesome). Of course Hitomi realizes that this was a mistake and tries to stop the wedding but it’s too late. Once the wedding ends, Naria and Eriya attack and defeat everyone who stands in their path. Hitomi blames herself for their new power-up believing that her attempt to change fate made them unbeatable (she tried to play God and she failed worse than Light from Death Note) and tries to make amends by giving herself up.
Episodes 21-26
Episode 21 picks up where we left off. Hitomi gives herself up to the leopard sisters and Van tries to save her which somehow shifts fate back into their favor. This of course doesn’t bold well for Naria and Eriya who begin reacting negatively to the implanted luck in their bodies. This allows Van and Allen to save Hitomi and Folken orders his cat entourage to retreat but Naria’s mech malfunctions and crashes in the city while Eriya returns to Folken. Despite her crash landing and weakened state, she manages to walk away from it alright and sneaks into the castle where she kidnaps Hitomi (she’s really become a damsel in distress and unlikable character as of late). As she’s in the clutches of Naria, Hitomi sees a vision of her childhood where her parents were killed by humans (well that’s a hate crime) and were about to be captured and sold into slavery until they got saved by Folken who gave them names (catgirl 1. Catgirl 2) and became his loyal servants. Hitomi tries to reason with her saying that this is wrong (it doesn’t matter if this is right or wrong. Folken, gave Naria a purpose and a reason to keep on living. To Naria, Folken is a god and she’ll do anything for him) and tries to get her to surrender so she can help but Naria doesn’t trust her. Dornkirk predicts that Naria will bring Hitomi to the port and orders Folken to send Eriya to retrieve them. Folken protests this but Eriya insists that she be allowed to go and she goes to pick up Naria and Hitomi. But before they can make their escape, Van finds Volken’s flying fortress and attacks it looking for Folken so he can kill him. Naria and Eriya abandon Hitomi and go to protect Folken where they finally (and sadly) succumb to the after effects of the luck experiment and die in the arms of Folken. Dornkirk then appears on the screen and decides to be an asshole saying how sad their death was but also how it’ll help him achieve his goals in the future and this pisses Folken off as he escapes the falling fortress and turns on Dornkirk.
In episode 22 Van finds out that Folken is waiting for him in the ruins of their kingdom so he goes there to confront his brother and Hitomi tags along (if she gets in your way feel free to toss her into the ocean). They arrive and Van is ready to kill Folken but before he can act earth dragons appear and attack them. Folken tells Van to let go of his rage which will stop the dragons from attacking him but he refuses to listen (listen to Vic, he’s a wise man). We get to see visions of his past such as how he failed to defeat a dragon and lost his arm in the process. The dragon spared him and he got saved by Dornkirk who trained him in the ways of science and came to believe in his theory of peaceful world. Folken still believes in the ideals of Dornkirk however he plans on doing it another way and create a world where anger and rage don’t exist anymore and needs their help to make it possible. After saving Van from the dragons Van decides to trust Folken and we see he has black wings.
In episode 23 Folken returns to Asturia with Van and Hitomi where he tells them that Zaibach plans to destroy Gaea. This causes an alliance to form between Asturia and its surrounding neighbors where to work with Folken to come up with a plan to defeat Zaibach once and for all. For his help, Folken is given sanctuary from Zaibach and even though he’s cooperating with Asturia to defeat Zaibach, Van still doesn’t trust him (would you trust the man who burned your kingdom down?). While helping out at a church, Hitomi gets into a fight with Allen (well this is something I never thought I would see) who’s upset that Hitomi left the castle without telling him and went off with Van without his knowledge. Later that night Allen tells Hitomi that he and Van are being dispatched tomorrow for war and also tells her about Chid being his illegitimate child (playboy). He then proposes to her saying he loves her and she is shocked by this (congratulations, all that toying with fate, and killing a few lives finally paid off. You got your man). She says she’ll give him an answer when he returns (she’s second guessing herself? You’ve been thirsty for this guy throughout the entire anime and now that you have him you don’t want him anymore? There’s just no satisfying you is there?). Van and Allen fly to the meeting point of the army where it gets attacked by Dilandau who begins burning the place down. Van protects the place where he begins taking down soldiers left and right and for some reason Hitomi can see the fight and everything (her powers just do whatever they want) experiencing Van’s bloodlust to protect her from harm and she doesn’t like it. Dilandau has somewhat of a mental breakdown (I always thought those were normal for him) and retreats. Van suggests they do a pre-emptive strike on Zaibach and Hitomi voices her hatred for seeing people dying (will you stop being a self-righteous bitch, they’re fighting to protect their home. Hell, if you would have used your powers in the first place we could have defeated Zaibach a long time ago and bought peace to Gaea with low casualties but no you decided to be a bitch) and prays to be sent home where her wish gets granted and she winds back up in the nurse’s office at school (woah, woah, woah! You’re telling me all she had to do was just pray hard enough to be sent back home? What the hell? At this point her powers make no sense whatsoever).
In episode 24 Hitomi wakes up only to discover that time has rewound to a day before she met Van and got teleported to Gaea (man, this is worse than the save points in Re:zero). During this walkthrough, she discovers that her friend Yukari also had a crush on Amano but kept her feelings locked up for the sake of Hitomi (alright, Yukari gets Amano and you can get either Van or Allen. If you want to get really sultry you can have both). Hitomi comes to the conclusion that her feelings for Amano weren’t as serious as Yukari’s feelings (the same thing can be said about your love life) and back on Gaea, Allen also has a realization about his feelings for Hitomi not being love but rather admiration for seeing a resemblance of his dead sister in her (the truth comes out. Allen is a siscon). As he sits in a room coming to this conclusion in walks his sister Celena still alive but having no memories (and he pretty much accepts her back without question). While visiting her grave she has a mental breakdown (I’m really starting to worry about the mental health of these characters) and transforms into Dilandau (holy shit your sister is a brother) where he gets picked up randomly by a dog servant of Zaibach (where the hell did he come from?). Consulting with Folken, Allen finds out that Zaibach kidnapped children and performed human experiments on them in order to manipulate fate. Celena was one of the kids who got kidnapped and through the experiments was brainwashed and mutated into a guy (okay I get the brainwashing but why turn her into a guy?). Back with Hitomi she finally realizes that the person she’s in love with is Van (thank you! The man does everything for you and you ignore him for someone else. If it was me, I would of said screw you a long time ago) and wants to return to Gaea to see him again. Van also realizes that he’s in love with Hitomi and tries to go to Earth where their feelings reach each other and Van makes it to Earth where he reunites with Hitomi and they return to Gaea where an all-out war has broken out (damn, clearly we should have been focusing on the war instead of Allen’s sister complex and Van and Hitomi’s feelings for each other).
At the start of episode 25 Van sends Hitomi back to Asturia to keep her safe while he remains on the frontlines of war. Once she returns she goes to Folken asking him for a way to help Van and they come to the conclusion that they should go talk to Dornkirk and ask him to stop the war before it’s too late (you know for a bunch of smart people you sure come up with some dumbass plans). Hitomi sees a vision where Folken gets killed confronting Dornkirk and decides to wait patiently hoping Van will be safe but as the war continues she begins to sense Van’s pain and the two transport themselves to Dornkirk. Folken kills Dornkirk (why is his blood green and glowing?) his sword breaks and the tip recoils and stabs him through the heart killing him (and the most implausible death award goes to Folken). Despite killing Dornkirk his spirit is still around and he actives the full power of his fate altering machine while Van senses the death of his brother and cries out in sorrow over his death.
In the final episode a huge beam of light shoots into the sky from Zaibach and spreads throughout the Gaea (it’s so beautiful). The soldiers on the battlefield see this believing it signals the end of Zaibach since their army has pretty much been wiped out. With this in mind the armies of the alliance turn into idiots and begin fighting each other in order to gain power for their kingdom (so this was your plan for a peaceful future Dornkirk, everyone trying to kill each other for power? This isn’t taking destiny this is just people acting like dumbasses on the battlefield). Van finds Dilandau and tries to kill him but that dog servant protects him with his life which causes him to remember his past and revert back to Celena. Van now tries to kill Celena in order to avenge his people, but Allen gets in the way protecting his sister and so the two wind up fighting each other (this is one pointless fight scene). Luckily, Hitomi manages to reach Van telepathically (sure, why the hell not?) and tells him to stop fighting and confesses her feelings for him. Van then gets out of Escaflowne and flies to Hitomi where his feathers return everyone to their senses and they stop fighting bringing this senseless war to an end. After seeing the love between Hitomi and Van, Dornkirk admits defeat saying that fate can be changed (well duh, weren’t you trying to do that all throughout the series?) and destroys his machine. After this the anime just wraps up. Gaea begins to rebuild itself, Van gives Folken a proper burial and puts Escaflowne back to sleep. As for Hitomi, Van sends her back to her world saying they can see each other whenever they want now that their minds are connected (and the two never kiss each other. She kisses Allen yet she doesn’t kiss the guy who she supposedly loves. That is some bullshit).
Final Thoughts
So that was Escaflowne is it the masterpiece that everyone says it is? Well yes and no. Don’t get me wrong there are some good aspects in this series. For starters the animation is great. While it looks a little dated in today’s world, it still holds up quite a bit. The fight/action scenes between the mechs are good and still some of the best I’ve seen. The mech designs are cool and give this anime credit for being one if not the first anime to blend mecha and isekai together. They do a good job balancing out the magic and science aspects of Gaea. It never truly feels like one is dominating the other and the soundtrack for this anime is very beautiful. Voice acting is spot on in the dub and sub so whichever one you decide to watch doesn’t matter. If I really had to choose which one I preferred I go with the sub. A lot of the VAs in the sub would go on to be big names in the anime community, so it’s nice to see that this is where a lot of them made their name known.
Sadly, where the series falls short is with its main character and story. As the series progresses Hitomi’s character starts to become annoying and shallow. I didn’t like how she was quick to fall for every guy she met and how she kept going back and forth between Allen and Van just because they did or said something she didn’t like. She also came across as selfish when Van asked her to use her powers to help them in battle which could save people from needlessly dying or confronting Allen about his illegitimate child at the wrong time. Oh, and let’s also not forget that she kisses every guy except the one she chooses to be with. The rest of the characters were nothing special either. Van is a guy trying to reclaim his lost kingdom which was a common character trope back then and Allen was the gentleman seeking his family that he lost. While they’re not bad tropes they’re nothing all that interesting or special. The same can be said for the story. While not a bad story it’s not really all that groundbreaking and the series does rush through certain parts. I can see now why Shoji wanted 39 episodes and how this anime could have benefitted from it. There’s really no great payoff at the end of the story either as you feel kind of empty when it’s all over.
While some parts of the anime have aged well and can still be enjoyed today, other parts of the anime have aged poorly and come across as weak storytelling and outdated.
Final Score
The final score for Escaflowne is a 7/10. I will say this series is worth checking out at least once. It may not be the masterpiece that everyone claims it is but I’m glad I watched it. It’s got more good aspects than bad and some of the aspects are still being used in anime today. Well that wraps it up for me. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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